The Story
Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, a cranky racist introduced to the audience on the day of his wife's funeral. How cranky is he? Walt's sons don't even like hanging around the old guy. He doesn't filter his thoughts and feelings. Whatever he thinks, he says, and it doesn't matter one iota how racist or inappropriate his opinions may be. Walt's a Korean War vet who's retired from Ford after years of putting together automobiles and now that his wife's passed away, he's all alone in the home in which they raised their children. Overall Walt's lived a long and full life, but it's some sort of miracle that he hasn't been murdered by one of the many people he's insulted over the years.
Walt's racism runs deep, and he's unafraid of calling his neighbors every possible hateful word you can use to describe someone of Asian descent. He despises the fact most of his neighbors are now Hmong immigrants and he rails at them whenever one gets within earshot. Yet despite what can only be described as deep-set hatred for anyone not a WASP, he begins warming up to the teenage Hmong girl who lives right next door. After saving her from gang bangers, he begins a weird friendship with her that eventually expands to include other members of her family, in particular her younger brother. When a local Hmong gang threatens the family, it's Walt who stands up for the same people he spent years putting down.
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